johnsmachines

Some posts ago I described my method of making band saw blades by silver soldering the join.

My band saw does have a German brand welder attached, but I have never been especially succesful with the results, so I have continued to silver solder, and very satisfied with those results.

But a friend asked to use the welder because that was the method which he was used to, so I watched.

Colin, examining the welder, after clamping the blade ends.

In the meantime, I had used fine emery paper to clean the electrical contacts, and Colin had cut the bandsaw blade ends square, then used emery to clean up the blade ends for a distance of 25mm.   Then the ends were clamped into position.

The appropriate current was selected and the button was pushed.  The current lasted only a second or so.

Then the weld was annealed.  Heated red hot and slowly cooled.  Repeated several times.  The annealing makes the weld less brittle, and softer, easier to file or grind flat.

The join before grinding flat.

Colin made 2 blades, then I made 4-5.  Very quick.  Much quicker than silver soldering.  Time will tell whether the joins last longer.